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A high school student is being supported for reporting to police a wannabe YouTube prankster who burned his 15,000-card Pokémon collection, and is planning to file a civil suit against him.
In three posts to Reddit's popular u/TIFU forum, standing for "Today I F**ked Up," u/Ok-Watch8193 earned over 13,900 posts for the first post in the trilogy, "TIFU By letting my friend who likes to prank people in my house. Which resulted in him burning 8000$ of Pokémon cards."
The original poster (OP), says that his Pokémon collection started when he was in third grade, and his grandfather died. Two weeks later, he found a Pokémon card that reminded him of his grandfather, so he took it—and started collecting. It's now eight years later, and u/Ok-Watch8193 says he had nearly 15,000 cards, including a complete run of the original set.
The OP met "Cole" in seventh grade and Cole knew how important the cards were to u/Ok-Watch8193. A couple years after they met, Cole launched his own YouTube prank channel, but it was one of Cole's most recent pranks that blew up their friendship.
"So Saturday he was chilling at my house because I invited him over. Well everything seemed normal but he asked to go to bathroom when we were watching a movie (I keep my Pokémon cards in my room in my closet for safety) well he was gone for awhile and I didn't really suspect anything," u/Ok-Watch8193 wrote. "Well flash forward to Monday. I look in my closet and all of my Pokémon cards are gone. Quite literally all of them. How he snuck all of them out is beyond me."
He says he texted Cole to ask about them, and Cole suggested that "maybe charizard ate them." Charizard is a fire-breathing Pokemon, similar to a dragon. OP asked again for the cards back, and Cole didn't respond. OP then got a notification that Cole had just posted a new video to his YouTube channel.
The video showed Cole and another friend stealing the OP's Pokémon cards. The two then made 15,000 fake cards with the standard Pokémon card backs and blank fronts. He then burned the real cards—later telling OP that this was an accident and he meant to burn the fakes, even though OP stored his collection in "special tins," so it should have been easy to tell them apart.
"I'm completely broken. Those Pokémon cards were a second part to me. I sent him a huge message and he replied that it was a prank and to relax. He destroyed 8,000$ worth of cards. I'm just so broken everyone. I blasted him on my social media and a bunch of his friends got mad at him and a few got mad at me telling me to drop it. People were telling me to go to the authorities but I'm not that type of person. He deleted his video. But I'm still so broken inside," u/Ok-Watch8193 wrote.
"He messaged me today calling me [the a**hole] for turning his friends against him in a huge paragraph about how it was a prank gone wrong and how I needed to grow up because were about to graduate high school and how Pokémon cards are for little kids," he continued.
In a second update, u/Ok-Watch8193 said he was able to compile proof of at least $3,000 worth of cards in his collection, though he estimates the full collection at closer to $8,000. And in a third update, he says he reported the theft and destruction to the police, who said they were opening an investigation. In addition, he has contacted a lawyer to file a civil suit against Cole.
"Tell everyone that I'm heartbroken. And that their support is giving me the strength to carry on," u/Ok-Watch8193 said in a comment to Newsweek. "The website business Bowtiegames.com has offered to give me $300 worth of Pokémon and the Reddit community is coming together and has bought several items off of my Amazon wishlist. I'm so shocked!"
Pokémon cards, particularly those from the first era in the late 1990s and early 2000s, can be worth a lot of money. Newsweek recently ran a story about a man who collected over 100 cards while in school in the 1990s. His collection went on auction where it was expected to fetch over $15,000.
Another Redditor had a problem with stolen Pokémon cards as well. A younger brother sold his older brother's collection, and then demanded a cut of the money, despite not actually consulting his brother on if he wanted to sell the cards in the first place.
While the OP didn't go into detail on what his most valuable cards were, certain rare cards can go for large amounts of money. A Master's Key recently sold for $21,000, according to Dicebreaker.com. The most valuable card is the Pikachu Illustrator, which is owned by YouTuber Logan Paul, who purchased it for more than $5.2 million.
Redditors were soundly on u/Ok-Watch8193's side.
"Felony theft and destruction of property. These people who 'prank' others for youtube fame are just A-holes. I would call the cops on him, using his own video as proof. Then file civil suite for damages," u/carl63_99 suggested.
"It wasn't a prank it was a crime," u/sunnyspiders added. "Your friend needs a solid dose of legal reality. Just a prank doesn't work, bro."
"Pranks are tricky enough to begin with, but if you're super careful they can be okay. But honestly, why even risk that, there are better ways to make people laugh," u/Oudeis16 wrote. "Anyone who harms other people or deliberately destroys things and then hides behind 'you're not allowed to be upset because I decided I was just pranking' is just an a**hole and a bully."
Update 8/18/2022 9:30 p.m.: This article has been updated to include comment from the OP.
Update 8/19/2022 4:30 p.m.: This article has been updated to include additional comment from the OP.
About the writer
Matt Keeley is a Newsweek editor based in Seattle. His focus is reporting on trends and internet culture. He has ... Read more